a thoughtless comment

I’m late to the party here (blame fibro), but a week or so ago, a radio DJ on twitter made a VERY inappropriate comment about people with fibromyalgia. He said they should be shot. Actually he said people who “claim to have fibromyalgia” should be shot, so take that as you will.

I’m just blogging this because I want to remember two things. The first is that even though fibromyalgia is REAL, there’s still a very long way to go to get people to understand that joking about it is insensitive. The second is that one should never underestimate the power of a small group of oppressed people. Twitter was abuzz with replies to @daveryankdwb about his insensitive and ableist comment, including a few disheartening exchanges between angry listeners (providing thoughtful comments and feedback) and an indignant @daveryankdwb. Many of the emails and @replies were also forwarded to @clearchannel, which owns the radio station where @daveryankdwb works.

I don’t know what happened, but after the holiday weekend, I saw that Dave Ryan apologized for his insensitive comment. (Twitter links referencing the apology here, here, here, and finally, here.)